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Monday, July 1, 2013

Vacation Pictures Post (and a few words from The Girlfriend)

Man, vacation was awesome! I can't wait to share it all with you.

Just, you know. One thing... I lost my camera. Which means that all the gorgeous photos of Lake Superior and the Keweenaw Peninsula are with someone else now. Heads up, if you were in Gay/Laurium/Calumet on Saturday and you found a blue Canon with fat lady nudes on it, that's mine. I'd like it back.

Since I don't have pictures, I'll just have to recreate them. I'm a pretty good artist, so you probably won't be able to tell the difference.

Day 1:

On the first day of our trip, our merry band of adventurers had to travel from Grand Rapids, MI, to Gay, MI. That's a really long drive. Eleven hours in two cars, with six writers making the journey. It was me, Bronwyn Green, Mia Watts, Kelsey St. James, Kris Norris, and Emily Love. The gruelling drive was marked by many potty breaks, but the most exciting part was the halfway point, the crossing of Michigan's majestic Mackinac (pronounced Mack-i-naw) Bridge. Look at this beautiful lady of the crossing, rising from her pylons in the great white shark infested waters where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet:

Day Two:

On day two, we got down to some serious writing, and I got down to some serious rock climbing. We were joined at the cabin by our friends Jessica Jarman and Anne, who is a reader who volunteered to come cook us pasta. Our cabin was right on the shore of Lake Superior, and the views were fantastic, as you can see from this expert artistic rendering:

Day 3:
We basically just spent day three writing our butts off in our lovely cabin.

Day 4:

Day 4 is where things got shitty for me. I woke up in the very early morning with a super bad headache. I had to be taken to a Yooper hospital. I don't want to say for sure that the doctor was a black bear in scrubs, but I've got this pretty convincing photo:

Dr. Deathbear diagnosed me with a muscle tension headache (it sounds totally not severe, but trust me, it was a 9 on the pain scale) and gave me a shot in my butt and put me on bed rest. I couldn't work for a whole day, but I could play Cards Against Humanity, which is a really fun game if you're a terrible person.

Day 5:

Our fifth day was spent in more writing. Overall, on the trip, I wrote 27k and change, 10k of that on Day 5. Most of the writing I did was on The Girlfriend, which is the sequel to The Boss. Hey, do you want to see some of those (unedited, totally out of context) words? Okay! Here you go:

“For what it’s worth, if you had proposed tonight, I would have said no.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Would you have?”

I dabbed the corners of my mouth with my napkin, careful not to smudge my lipstick. I couldn’t lie to him. “No.”

Day 6:

On our sixth day of vacation, we struck out for the very tippiest top of Michigan, Copper Harbor. It's tiny, it's foggy, and there are lots of rocks, and also Lake Superior. There were also Orthodox Christian monks living up there who make baked goods:

Day 7:
This was the last day we could possibly get any work done, and get work done, I did. Do you want to see more of it? Okay!

“Maybe I did, in the past, but… I don’t know. I’ve always felt like you were… not resentful of me, but perhaps slightly inconvenienced by my existence. I got the feeling that you didn’t like me around.” She paused. “I feel like I made you uncomfortable somehow.”

“You made me uncomfortable?” That absolutely flabbergasted me. “No, Emma. I felt like I was making you uncomfortable. Because your dad was dating me, and we’re the same age, and the way we first met- “

Yup, it's still Sophie and Neil. And I'm sure my rough drafts have some pretty awesome spots of first draftness in them. I was reading over something where Neil told Sophie she "needed be threatened," about something, and I was like, "Wait... she needs to be threatened by this? That doesn't make any sense." What I meant was, "You needn't be threatened," LOL.

Mine, too. I was raised up Roman Catholic, but my father's family is Orthodox, and when we came around Great Sand Bay and I saw this gleaming gold onion dome sticking out above the trees, I was like, "Hey! ORTHODOXES!"

I hope you get your camera back! Put up an ad on the local Craigslist. I found a really nice (for the time) camera with a Carl Zeiss lens, and though I ended up keeping it, I did spend about a month trying to find the owner. I wasn't going to look forever, which is why I kept it after a month. But point is, you never know. Maybe the person who found it will try finding the owner.

My husband has relatives in the UP and I can't believe how beautiful Lake Superior is. The water is just as beautiful as the Caribbean but cooooold! Some of them live on the Michigan side and some on the Wisconsin side. I remember going up there to visit right after we saw the movie Fargo and we kept snickering when the would talk, lol. I am from Chicago and we don't have funny accents, ha. Anyway you can tease all u want about the girlfriend, hopefully you will tease us with an excerpt.

Oh my giddy aunt that was a good giggle! What a shame about your camera, horrible when things like that happen. Thankfully, however, your artistic streak is as awesome as your sarcastic one so we all get to enjoy your holiday too! Glad you had a nice vacation and I think I speak for everyone when I tell you that you were greatly missed and we look forward to reading... well... anything you write really. Doctor Death Bear is amazing. Also monk muffins. Yum. xxx

So glad you're back safe. Sucks moose nuts about the camera, but once again your talent let us see the important stuff. Never had a Monk Muffin....I'm craving The Girlfriend. Welcome home! We missed you. I kept coming to the page & then kicking myself cause I knew u were not here but my fingers said to check just in case....smooches! Oh by the way...read this book called Touched about a witch who is a companion to a Vampire and I TOTALLY saw you as the witch. Its by AJ Aalto if you're interested. Its also free on Amazon.

I had a similar experience in Florida a few years ago. My camera disappeared in Knockturn Alley in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. You can't tell your insurance company that you think death eaters took it as you left the Hog's Head ... I'd only had one butterbeer!

Yes, I sound crazy, but this actually happened. My camera got lost in Hogsmeade :(

Truly your artistic abilities are unparalleled. ;P I have to be honest, I can't do much better as far as art, and the fact that you managed to do that on the computer is really impressive. I can't use any computer paint programs to save my life. Unless you want, like, Minimalist Abstraction, then I'm the bomb.I think my favourite, though, is your Muffin-Making Merlin-Monk (alliteration!) Your vacation sounds super fun, except for the migraine. As someone who gets frequent headaches and migraines (though never that severe) all I can say is, ouch and I hope it doesn't happen again.Hopefully your camera gets returned too. Lastly, even out of context, those lines from The Girlfriend are really intriguing and really well written. :D

Yes, yes, yeeeeees! X3 I love the pictures. (Muffin monk nearly had me spewing soup all over boyfriend's expensive laptop. Also, sorry about Dr Death Bear.) And the words. THE WORDS. Damn you, calendar. Y U no show July 15th?!

total sidebar from the topic, but do any of you watch Warehouse 13 on Syfy channel? Guess who played an evil alchemist named Paracelsus who is unlocked from a bronzer machine that has locked him in since the 16th century? Why no less than Anthony Head, playing a bad guy, but looking so good sporting a beard (I like beards and long as they aren't scraggly looking)Next week is the season finale so I wonder if he will be the bad guy for next season and I believe the ending of the series.http://www.syfy.com/warehouse13

Arrrgh! (“For what it’s worth, if you had proposed tonight, I would have said no.”He lifted an eyebrow. “Would you have?”I dabbed the corners of my mouth with my napkin, careful not to smudge my lipstick. I couldn’t lie to him. “No.”)

What does it mean.....what does it all mean!!!! Daddy I want it now!!!(I feel like Veruca Salt)

Ha, the pictures are amazing! Who needs a camera? One of my fears is losing my camera. Once in college, the drugstore lost a roll of my film and I was totally freaking out at the thought of losing those photos.

I'm totally jealous because I have wanted to go to Mackinac Island ever since I saw Somewhere in Time back in high school.

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I love that my readers want to buy my books out of support/curiosity. Any books I have written will be under Jennifer Armintrout/Abigail Barnette/Jenny Trout. I have no other pen names, and books without those names on them were not written by me, even if the spelling is really, really close.

Heads up, Dear Reader

This is the official blog of Jenny Trout, writer, swearer, and all around obscene person. Under the name Jennifer Armintrout, I wrote USA Today Bestselling fantasy/urban fantasy/paranormal romance. Under the pseudonym Abigail Barnette, I write award-winning romance and erotic romance, both historical and contemporary.

What you can expect to find here in 2013:

Chapter-by-chapter recaps of 50 Shades Freed

Updates on my free online erotic romance serial, The Boss

An in-depth re-watch of the entire series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The occasional post about cake

Lots of swearing

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